“So Much Beauty Is Born from Longing.” Summary of the Meeting with Barbara Elmanowska at Villa Decius 01.12.2025
The literary evening with Barbara Elmanowska, laureate of the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Award, became one of the most moving moments of this autumn at Villa Decius. The conversation, moderated by Dr habil. Anna Spólna, revealed the layers of Woliera – a novel powerful, tender, and painfully relevant. The meeting once again confirmed how central literature is to the mission of the Villa Decius Institute of Culture, especially now, as our new space at the Strzelnica on Wola allows us to expand this work even further.
Woliera – a story of absence, longing, and the world that shapes us
During the conversation, Barbara Elmanowska spoke about the process of writing Woliera – the award-winning novel distinguished for its linguistic precision and emotional depth. She reflected on experiences of exclusion, the search for closeness, and relationships that are fragile yet essential. One of the most memorable lines of the evening surfaced as she spoke about desire and literature: “So much beauty is born from longing.” This sentence floated over the conversation like a shared insight into what is intangible yet fundamentally human.A conversation that opens new and unexpected paths
Dr habil. Anna Spólna led the discussion with remarkable attentiveness, asking questions that invited the author to unveil the emotional and structural foundations of the novel, as well as the personal histories that shaped it. Her approach – academic yet engaging – created a space for a dialogue that stayed with the audience long after the event ended.For us, as the Villa Decius team, meetings like this represent exactly what a cultural institution should be: a space for dialogue, exchange, discovery, and genuine intellectual encounter.
Literature at Villa Decius – a mission growing with us
The Literature at the Villa series is one of the core initiatives of the Villa Decius Institute of Culture. We believe that literature builds community, opens perspectives, and cultivates sensitivity – something needed today more than ever.
Thanks to our new facilities at the Strzelnica on Wola, we are expanding our literary and educational activities even further, creating a space where readers, authors, and scholars can meet in an atmosphere of openness and thoughtful discussion.
Thank you
Our heartfelt thanks go to Barbara Elmanowska for her presence, trust, and a conversation that moved us all.We also thank Dr habil. Anna Spólna for her wise, attentive, and deeply insightful moderation.
We are grateful that Villa Decius can serve as a place where literature resonates fully – and we promise that this is just the beginning of many important conversations to come.